Making Traditional rice Wine. Cheap, Fun, and Different

[Unferth]

How might one go about safely bottle priming this stuff? I was thinking of cutting it with water to about 9 % and putting it in a beer bottle or two. i wonder at what point this yeast poops out.

 

[sonofgrok]

My latest batch of blueberry. Delicious.

I have to confess that it carbed ever so slightly.

I am looking forward to some of you all hopefully posting up your final products!

 

[bottlebomber]

I will definitely update once I get started. My larger glass vessels are all holding Kombucha, kimchee and pickles at the moment, so I will need to acquire another vessel for this. I would really like to start with at least a gallon of cooked rice. It doesn't seem worth it to only end up with a 12 ounce bottle or two, and there is very little that I don't like in the world of alcohol so not liking it really isn't a concern of mine.

 

[sonofgrok]

It doesn't seem worth it to only end up with a 12 ounce bottle or two

That is a 1 liter bottle

 

[bottlebomber]

That is a 1 liter bottle

How much rice did it take to fill that?

 

[chiteface]

The Shanghai Dried Yeast Balls I am using are made of rice flour, yeast, water; product of Macau.
They do sell just simple rice balls at market (think rice dumplings for soups/stews), so you want to make sure these are yeast balls, or sometimes sold in cake or patty form.

So about this yeast. Clearly it is a highly alcohol tolerant strain and low flocculating, any ideas on how it would work with a big beer? It seems like it would finish pretty clean as well given the clean crisp taste rice wine typically has.

 

[sonofgrok]

How much rice did it take to fill that?

Well it is hard to say because I brewed up about 5-6 cups rice dry but when it came to filtering out the wine, I accidentally spilled probably a 1/4 o it or so.

 

[saramc]

So about this yeast. Clearly it is a highly alcohol tolerant strain and low flocculating, any ideas on how it would work with a big beer? It seems like it would finish pretty clean as well given the clean crisp taste rice wine typically has.

No clue. Worse case scenario, you pour your beer out. The site below mentions a style of rice beer.

I was reading on a sake page, http://homebrewsake.com/home/recipe/, which of course uses koji they grow, etc., but it had steps week by week, talks about priming, aging, etc., and it mentioned that they recommend pasteurizing when finished because it tends to pick up lactobacillus infection quite easily.

 

[ErinRae]

Earlier in the thread I read that a couple batches of rice wine got mold on it while it was fermenting. I know this is probably a little normal because it's mold spores that is fermenting it? I'd like to try making a batch but I don' t think I could handle drinking something that had fuzzies growing on it..does this happen every time?

 

[Arpolis]

Earlier in the thread I read that a couple batches of rice wine got mold on it while it was fermenting. I know this is probably a little normal because it's mold spores that is fermenting it? I'd like to try making a batch but I don' t think I could handle drinking something that had fuzzies growing on it..does this happen every time?

Mold will happen in this whether you like it or not. Just the degree of visible mold is dependant on the fermenting environment. Now I am more familiar to traditional Japanese style Sake ferments that use Koji or Rice covered in different types of Aspergillus mold. The style used here I have recently learned is more akin to Chinese brewing methods that uses both Aspergillus mold and Rhizopus mold in order to convert the starches into Fructose, Glucose & some Dextrose. Now if you really want to inhibit mold growth you can ferment the brew at a lower temperature. To keep Aspergillus from getting hairy, you want temps as low as 50*F and as high as 55*F. Yet you also need a yeast that can handle being that cold. I am not sure if the yeast in the yeast balls used here has that low of a temperature tolerance. Also not sure on the tolerances of Rhizopus mold so it may get a bit hairy still at those temps or it may slow it down so that the relatively short ferment time here does not allow for it to get hairy. Just try it out regardless & from the sounds of everyone you should be happy with the end result. A little good mold doesn’t hurt anyone

 

[negativereaction]

Let it be known that my two batches that are currently fermenting both are hairy on top after a couple weeks, maybe an inch of fuzz, to the point where the rice grains themselves are not visible. It's a nice downy soft white fuzz. I'm fermenting around 80F (ambient temps in my FL garage). I'm still going to harvest the resulting liquid, although I am not sure I want my liquid to come into contact with that fuzz, so the harvesting process might be a bit sketchy. Definitely not going to discard what I have, but I think the next batch I might add water to my jars to get the rice just submerged below the surface, on the hunch that the water will prevent the onset of fuzz, or at least slow it down

 

[sonofgrok]

Let it be known that my two batches that are currently fermenting both are hairy on top after a couple weeks, maybe an inch of fuzz, to the point where the rice grains themselves are not visible. It's a nice downy soft white fuzz. I'm fermenting around 80F (ambient temps in my FL garage). I'm still going to harvest the resulting liquid, although I am not sure I want my liquid to come into contact with that fuzz, so the harvesting process might be a bit sketchy. Definitely not going to discard what I have, but I think the next batch I might add water to my jars to get the rice just submerged below the surface, on the hunch that the water will prevent the onset of fuzz, or at least slow it down

I definitely would not add water. There is a Thai version like this and it just invites unwanted molds. Do you have your cloth/lid airlock on tight, sanitized everything well etc.?

 

[negativereaction]

Ah, ok, thanks for the info on the water.

I'm sure my lid if not tight enough, and probably not sanitized well enough. Going to fire up another batch with a new jar, drowning everything in starsan first, and with extra effort to keeping things clean.

 

[sonofgrok]

Yeah, I am not a sanitation Nazi or anything but I rinse the jar, lid, and cheesecloth with starsan and I keep the rice covered while it is cooling and stuff. Never have any trouble.

 

[ErinRae]

Ugg reading anything about mold just makes me cringe! Mold scares me..if I open something that has mold I usually jump back, or drop it, definitely run for my husband to take care of it Aww well sounds like a great experiment though!!

 

[mrkrausen]

Okay, I feel a little better. I have some mold in one of my rice wine vessels growing on the top that looks just like post 118 think it was. I guess it's no biggie and to be expected even. My next question is it sounds like most of you are stirring it over the course of fermentation. I haven't yet and I'm about a week in. I guess I'll do that when I get home.

 

[sonofgrok]

Ugg reading anything about mold just makes me cringe! Mold scares me..if I open something that has mold I usually jump back, or drop it, definitely run for my husband to take care of it Aww well sounds like a great experiment though!!

I hope you never need a shot of penicillin!

Okay, I feel a little better. I have some mold in one of my rice wine vessels growing on the top that looks just like post 118 think it was. I guess it's no biggie and to be expected even. My next question is it sounds like most of you are stirring it over the course of fermentation. I haven't yet and I'm about a week in. I guess I'll do that when I get home.

I have not ever stirred. I have read its ok to do though.

 

[bottlebomber]

I'm so not afraid of mold... I'll eat moldy cheese, bread, I don't care. Not black mold, but face it everything is covered with bacteria, parasites and microorganisms.

 

[cincydave]

OK, found this thread yesterday and went out and got some sticky rice and yeast balls today. The lady at the oriental grocry said one yeast ball to 2 pounds of rice. Batch is now "cooking" in a one gallon glass container. Hopefully will end up with something tasty.

 

[groundling]

3 days in and there is about a cup of liquid in it now. I was concerned at first because I over cooked it slightly and this was the stickiest rice I have ever seen. I mean, it was difficult to get off my hands with soap and water. Anyway, when I first put it in the jar I was concerned that no oxygen would get into the middle. clearly that didn't make a wit of difference.

Also of interest, the top of it is covered in a white mold. Really fluffy looking. I'm not concerned about it because the koji rice had a fine hairy later on it to begin with. I assume that is what koji looks like.

 

[kevinstan]

I am curious if using a vessel with an airlock will change the outcome of having mold grow on top. I am thinking that using the cheesecloth on top to allow c02 to escape is also allowing too much oxygen in. I am going to start my batch this weekend and will be using a 1500ml ball canning jar with an airlock I put on top. I will report how it goes in case anything is different.

I am also wondering why in all the pictures it seems like everyone is only filling up their container about 1/3 of the way up ? This could also be leaving too much headspace. I am going to fill my batch almost all the way up to the top.

 

[weirdboy]

I am pretty sure you WANT the mold in any proper sake.

http://www.sake-world.com/html/koji.html

 

[user 83772]

@kevinstan: Keep in mind, that stuff like this was traditionally done in a more or less open-air type configuration. An airlock isn't likely to make much difference, IMHO.

 

[glenlivet]

I have some liquid sake yeast in my frozen yeast bank. It's about 5-10ml of yeast in glycerol. Id like to try and use this for a batch; any suggestions on how to make a starter? I was thinking either a small dme starter just to wake them up and see if they're viable then pitch to the rice. Or just pitch directly to a small amount of rice and add that to the larger batch. I'm leaning towards the dme method since I know what it should look like if they're still good.

 

[sonofgrok]

I have some liquid sake yeast in my frozen yeast bank. It's about 5-10ml of yeast in glycerol. Id like to try and use this for a batch; any suggestions on how to make a starter? I was thinking either a small dme starter just to wake them up and see if they're viable then pitch to the rice. Or just pitch directly to a small amount of rice and add that to the larger batch. I'm leaning towards the dme method since I know what it should look like if they're still good.

You might run into trouble with just the yeast because the koji or amalayse enzyme is required to break the sugars in the rice to make them accessible to the yeast. The koji doesn't behave like the yeast and does not grow to my knowledge in starters etc. Maybe your yeast has amalayse enzyme in it which would work but still would not multiply in a starter so you would need to pitch enough.

 

[glenlivet]

Right, I forgot all about the koji. Good call, thanks.

 

[tdub1327]

Sonofgrok, how much fruit do you add to flavor the rice wine? Also , the lid is tight with cheese cloth? I am using mason jars, do I need to leave the top part of the lid in?

Please, anybody , how much fruit do I use to flavor my wine? Is there a ratio or something? Thanks.

 

[sonofgrok]

Sonofgrok, how much fruit do you add to flavor the rice wine? Also , the lid is tight with cheese cloth? I am using mason jars, do I need to leave the top part of the lid in?

Please, anybody , how much fruit do I use to flavor my wine? Is there a ratio or something? Thanks.

Meh... I eyeball it. Usually maybe the juice from a cup of fruit or so. I would leave the center in on the mason jars.

 

[pabloj13]

Do you think the warm ambient temp is necessary for character, or will cooler (ambient ~68) be ok but just take longer?

 

[tdub1327]

Thank you! I can't wait to try it!